Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches

Before we can dive, mouth first, into this post we need to discuss one important topic. It’s more so answering a critical question, really. It happens to be the biggest question ever asked in the food world. The answer to which is the most vital piece of information that can ever be granted. You might be wondering what the question is. I’ll tell you that it’s a question I’m most often asked. Perhaps you’ve been asked it too. You’d be surprised how may people inquire about such a topic. Pancakes, waffles or french toast? My answer is always waffles. Waffles to the very end of my existence. Waffles for life. Waffles, always and forever. Waffles for the win. And not just because this happens to be a waffle post, no, but because crispy on the outside, moist on the inside waffles are to die for. Although not on pancake days. Tall stacks of warm flapjacks with butter and maple syrup, perhaps with a few chocolate chips thrown into the batter? Definitely pancakes. Pancakes to the very end of my existence. Pancakes for life. Pancakes, always and forever. Pancakes for the win. Yet french toast, however, is kind of the best thing on the planet, isn’t it? Challah or brioche french toast with a dusting of powdered sugar, perhaps even stuffed with cream cheese and berries? Most definitely french toast, hands down one hundred percent. French toast to the very end of my existence. French toast for life. French toast, always and forever. French toast for the win. Do you see my dilemma? I can never get anywhere with this.

Over the weekend I was housesitting/cat sitting for a friend. It was a nice get-away for me, as said friend lives by the beach. Now I know what you must be thinking, “But Jonathan, you hate the beach!” If you weren’t thinking it before, you’re thinking it now. And you’re right, I’m not a beach person—I’m not much of a sun person really—but I am a cooler weather person. So I’m all for houses by the beach and gloomy overcast days. I decided to get some work done—in between constantly taking pictures of her cat and getting on his nerves with hugs and kisses of course—while I was over there. I always think it’s fun to cook in someone else’s kitchen. You get thrown out of your comfort zone, out of your element. It’s sort of weird preparing for a post in a space I’m not familiar with, especially since my friend also bakes and cooks and shoots and writes. It’s like walking around in someone else’s shoes for a day, ones that take you a while to get used to. However, I did manage and I actually had a lot of fun shooting somewhere different. Somewhere that wasn’t my own house for a change. I’m sure Miller, my college studio lighting teacher would be oh so proud of me for that, so this post is for him for forcing me out of my comfort zone (it only took me a year to do it). In the end I love how the pictures turned out, but lets be honest, shooting with the cutest cat in the world, certainly helped. He’s a hoot, constantly sneaking up trying to get food, thinking he can’t be seen. Oh I can see you Jules Stevens, I can see you and you’re adorable. I guess when it comes to fried chicken and waffles none of us can keep away.

The first thing we need to do is work on the waffles. These aren’t your ordinarily plain, everyday waffles, no. These are over-the-top-waffles-on-steriods waffles. They’re the king of waffles, all other waffles can just go on home now that these have arrived. What makes these waffles so incredibly irresistible and dare I say it, even sinful (shhhh you didn’t hear it from me)? It’s probably the mounds of crispy bacon or all the cheese, maybe even the scallions. Although scallions aren’t sinful.

Let’s start by making the simplest of waffle batters. The base of this recipe is just an everyday buttermilk waffle recipe, with a few twists of course. We’re adjusting it to make them less sweet and more savory. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar (because I happen to think brown sugar and bacon are perfect companions, long lost lovers) and black pepper. Make sure there’s plenty of black pepper as that will give the waffles amazing flavor, plus I also like the way the pepper flecks look in the waffles. Indulge me friends.

We’re mixing this by hand because waffle and pancake batter is the easiest thing you can ever mix by hand (and you’ll look like the Davy Crocket of cooking and people will be jealous saying, “Look at them, they think they’re so cool making everything by hand!”) plus you never want to over-mix these batters so doing it by hand will prevent you from over-mixing.

**Tip: Mix the batter with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula for best results. Avoid using a whisk as that will completely smooth out the batter and you never want a completely smooth pancake or waffle batter. The key is to have it be slightly lumpy.**

Crack the eggs into a separate small bowl. Doing this will allow you to make sure the eggs are alright and are shell free. Also it’ll allow you to whisk the eggs prior to adding them to the dry ingredients, which helps to evenly combine everything together later on.

We have to make room for the wet ingredients, so make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, right in the middle of the bowl.

Pour in the eggs and the melted butter. What’s a waffle without butter? What’s life without butter? I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s not forget about the buttermilk, these are buttermilk waffles after all. If you don’t have buttermilk you can use regular milk that’s okay.

**Tip: If you have lemon juice or vinegar on hand, throw some into the whole milk and let it stand for a few minutes. BOOM instant buttermilk.**

And those are all the wet ingredients. If these were going to be sweet waffles, I’d add more sugar, leave out the black pepper and add vanilla extract. But these aren’t sweet waffles. They’re savory waffles, soon to be buns to a yummy sandwich waffles. So we cut the sugar, added the black pepper and disinvited the vanilla extract. It’s the way of life, sorry vanilla. Try again next time.

Give it all a stir until just combined. I repeat until just combined. Do not over-mix the batter. I won’t forgive you for it. (That’s a lie, I totally will). It should be slightly lumpy.

Now that’s all fine and dandy and wonderful but where’s the bacon? Where’s the cheddah?! Where are the green onions? Where Jonathan?!?! WHERE?!?!

I’m using thick cut bacon so we can actually taste it. I cooked it, as you can see. I think it goes without saying, but just in case I’ll say it anyway, the bacon needs to be cooked prior to adding it to the batter. But we all knew that already, didn’t we?

So chop up the crispy cooked bacon (I like large chunk) and add it to the batter, along with the cheese and scallions.

Carefully and ever so gently fold in the ingredients. I say carefully and gently only because these are sacred ingredients. Too tasty to break up or mash.

Stand back and admire this thing of beauty. You created this. What’s that? It’s not cooked yet? Well I know! It’s still a gorgeous sight! No? Fine, let’s cook these waffles then.

Get a waffle iron preheated, it should be hot and ready for you, not the other way around. I tend to leave it preheating while I’m whipping up the batter. I should have said that earlier huh? Well, I’m saying it now. I wish I had a nifty tip or trick on how to make waffles without a waffle iron, but I’m no magician. Sorry folks, if you don’t have a waffle iron, you simply can’t make waffles and that makes me sad. But then I think about waffles and I get happy again.

Lightly grease your waffle iron with cooking spray. I do so even if it’s supposed to be “non-stick.” It just prevents my waffles from sticking. Really it prevents me from pulling out my hair and crying on the kitchen floor because my waffles are stuck in the iron and won’t come out. The tragedy. It’s heart breaking.

Cook waffles according to your waffle iron instructions or look onto the knobs and buttons to direct you. This waffle iron had a knob that you’d turn depending on how brown you’d like your waffles. I left it in between medium and dark. It makes the waffles crispy. Overall it took about 4 to 6 minutes.

Place the cooked waffles onto a cooling rack positioned over a baking sheet. This will allow us to warm up the waffles in the oven later on when we get ready to assemble our sandwiches. The cooling rack will make the waffles crispy in the oven.

And with a snap of our fingers and all the magical powers granted to me by the internet, our waffles are done.

Let’s talk about the fried chicken part to this dish. I have here a few chicken cutlets that I cut in half. That’s just me being super lazy. The cutlets are thin and make it perfect for fast frying. I don’t have time to wait for thick pieces of chicken to fully cook. I need to eat my fried chicken waffle sandwiches as soon as possible.

Toss the chicken around in the buttermilk and hot sauce. You can do this step before the waffles, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to sit and allow the buttermilk to permeate the chicken making it more tender and juicy and moist. But if you don’t have the time or if you forgot, then don’t worry about it. I hope you like dry chicken. I’m kidding, it won’t be dry.

Now get the dredge (flour coating) ready. Grab a shallow dish and throw in some flour. Regular all-purpose flour will do. Season it with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.

Ok, we’re ready to start coating and dredging the chicken. We’re double dipping it, so grab a piece of chicken and drop it into the flour. Pat and turn over to coat both sides evenly. Return the chicken to the buttermilk and flip. Finally pass it through the flour once more. Coat both sides, pressing the flour into the chicken to create a thick crust.

**Tip: Double dipping the chicken will give it a super crunchy exterior which is perfect for fried chicken. It really makes a difference.**

Repeat this process until all the chicken has been coated in the same manner, placing the pieces on a cooling rack positioned over a baking sheet.

**Tip: If I can give you just one tip when it comes to frying chicken. Just one piece of advice—you know, aside from using buttermilk and double dipping it—it would be to allow the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes, once coated, on a cooling rack. The air with slightly dry out the coating and will make sure it sticks to the chicken. It helps when you fry it because the flour coating will stay on and it will get really crispy.**

Once the oil is hot you can fry the chicken. Do not over-crowd the pan. A few pieces at a time is okay, you’ll have to fry the chicken in batches.

**Note: If you put too many pieces all at once, the oil might overflow causing a grease fire but also you’ll drop the temperature of the oil down and the chicken won’t cook properly.**

Fry for about 5 minutes on the first side, flip it over (once golden brown and crispy) and continue to cook for another 4 minutes. Remember, the chicken will cook fast as it is thin.

Place the cooked chicken on another cooling rack, don’t place it on the same one where the raw chicken was. That’s cross contaminating and you could get sick with all sorts of weirdo raw chicken diseases. No one wants that. If you’ve run out of racks you can place it on a baking sheet. This will allow us to warm up the chicken later on, in the oven, once we’re ready to assemble our sandwiches, which is soon. Soon I tell you!

Let’s make a quick sauce to go with our sandwiches. Two kinds of mustard and maple syrup. That’s it. So whisk together the maple syrup, spicy brown mustard (or dijon if that’s what you have on hand) and yellow mustard.

Let’s assemble our sandwiches. Start with a waffle and lay down a piece of fried chicken on top.

A few slices of tomatoes and avocado, because we have to be healthy.

You know something will be delicious if there is avocado involved. Am I right ladies and gentlemen?

A handful of leafy greens (look mamma I’m being healthy) and a dousing of our maple mustard sauce.

You can have the sandwich, just like that, open faced with only one waffle, if you’re watching what you eat. BUT if you’re like me and don’t care, go ahead and place that other bacon cheddar green onion waffle right on top. You go ahead and celebrate. It’s a sandwich, go all the way. Tomorrow you can worry about what you’re eating, but today, today you live.

And now that my friends is the world’s best sandwich ever known to man and woman. I mean, where do you even begin? How can we possibly even dig into something so beautiful? I just want to stare at it.

Before you start to say that this is way too decadent for you, think about this, it’s not like you eat this every single day! Once in a while you’re allowed to have fun and live. I mean after all, we have tomatoes and greens and avocado in it. We’re doing our part to be healthy. Plus the last post was totally healthy so we kind of deserve this, don’t you think?

These are really awesome (aside from their amazing taste) but they’re perfect for gatherings or parties because you can cut them in half and you don’t have to worry about them being hot or warm. They’re just as delicious, if not better, at room temperature. That might sound weird and maybe it is, mainly because I actually like cold fried chicken. Am I the only one?

Bacon Cheddar Green Onion Waffles

2015-02-06 17:18:11

Traditional buttermilk waffles get a recipe makeover with a few favorite ingredients. Bacon, cheddar cheese and green onions turn these plain waffles into waffles extraordinaire. The perfect companion to any fried chicken.

In a large bowl stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and black pepper. Make a well in the center of the bowl and set aside.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and whisk together. Pour into the center of the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter and buttermilk. Using a wooden spoon, stir the waffle batter until just combined. It should be sightly lumpy. If the batter appears to be too thick, add a splash of buttermilk and stir until pouring consistency is reached. Fold in the cooked chopped bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and sliced green onions.

Lightly grease the waffle iron with cooking spray or melted butter. Pour in about ½ cup batter in each waffle cavity, more or less depending on size of waffle iron. Cook until the waffles are golden brown and crispy. Mine were about 4 to 6 minutes. Place the cooked waffles on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. Place in a 200° F oven to keep the waffles warm until ready to eat. Continue cooking until all the batter is used up. Serve warm with maple syrup or maple mustard sauce (recipe follows). Or make them into fried chicken and waffle sandwiches (recipe follows). Waffles will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. To rewarm, place the waffles on a baking sheet in a 300° F oven for about 5 minutes until crispy. Enjoy!

Notes

yields: about 8 to 10 waffles

By The Candid Appetite

The Candid Appetite http://www.thecandidappetite.com/

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

2015-02-06 17:14:05

Whether you're using boneless chicken breast or bone-in chicken pieces, this fried chicken recipe will leave you wanting more and more and more. Crunchy on the outside, moist and juicy in the inside. Perfect inside two pieces of bacon cheddar green onion waffles.

Place the chicken in a large bowl. Cover with buttermilk and add the hot sauce, if using. Toss together until evenly mixed and all the chicken is submerged in the buttermilk. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. If you don't have the time, this step is not crucial but it will help make the chicken tender and juicy.

In a shallow dish combine the flour, salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and black pepper. To coat the chicken, grab a piece from the buttermilk bowl, slightly drain off, and throw into the flour. Pat the flour into the chicken, on both sides. Return to the buttermilk bowl (with the rest of the chicken) and coat both sides. Place the chicken back into the flour, once more, and coat both sides. We're double dipping the chicken. Lay the coated chicken on a rack placed over a baking sheet. Repeat in this manner until all the chicken is coated. Allow the coated chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes, this will allow the fry to dry a bit and stick to the chicken.

In the meantime, heat about 2 inches of oil in a heavy duty pan, such as a cast iron skillet. Once the oil is hot, fry the chicken in batches. Cook for about 5 minutes on the first side, turn over once golden brown and crispy, continue to cook for another 4 minutes on the other side. Drain the chicken and place on a separate rack set over a baking sheet. You can keep the cooked chicken warm in a 200°F oven until all the chicken is fried and you're ready to serve. Make into fried chicken and waffle sandwiches with bacon cheddar green onion waffles (recipe above) and layer with lettuce, sliced tomato, avocado, and maple mustard sauce (recipe follows). Enjoy!

Notes

yields: about 4 servings

By The Candid Appetite

The Candid Appetite http://www.thecandidappetite.com/

Maple Mustard Sauce

2015-02-06 17:08:55

A spicy and sweet mustard sauce perfect for dipping fried chicken in. Just three ingredients makes it super easy to make.

My new tip for fried chicken. Makes it extra crunchy crispy – sub cornstark or rice flour for 1\3 of regualr flour. The Koreans us cornstarch for their fried chcken and it is the bomb. Meanwhile , this is #1 on my TBC list

hey there! saw this on FoodGawker and I am so glad I clicked!!! Wow, this is seriously so awesome. . I totally see your dilemma with the Pancakes, waffles or french toast thing. . but with this recipe, the waffles totally win. every time. love this. and I’m with you, what’s life without indulging a little and eating just a little grease?!:) what a fantastic recipe!

I love waffles sandwiches (I made a braised balsamic beef waffle sandwich before and it was amazing)! This is a gourmet version of the classic chicken and waffles…I’m drooling right now just wanting a bite!

Oh no! How could I omit such a crucial step?! I’ll be sure to include it in the next post so you wont be so lost, just staring at the bag of flour. I recommend you youtube it so you can actually make something in the meantime while you wait for me to post the picture.

This recipe looks AMAZING!!! It’s my first time on your site and wow, you have some wonderful recipes. I also felt like I was a creep because as I read this post I thought, “this looks alot like Joy’s house, and is that her cat?” and I don’t even know them, but boy did you do her kitchen justice pulling these babies out!

You can omit it if and only if you start using the slogan “Cheese-y makes me queasy!” That’s the only way I’ll let you. I wont cast these judging eyes towards you because my sister actually feels the exact same way about cheese. You can definitely leave it out!

Hallelujah! I made these for my friends last night and it was so much fun. Everyone had a job. Someone shredded cheddar, one person made the dry mix, one person was on fry duty. Such a blast! We ate and ate and the flavor of those waffles was absolutely amazing. This was followed with a glorious food coma. The best sunday night dinner ever. I will forever follow your blog and try your recipes. Thank you so much for bringing just pure happiness to the world through your food.

1. Is there a waffle iron you recommend purchasing? I have been planning on getting one for awhile and this recipe is giving me all the motivation I need to buy one! Not sure if I should get a regular or belgian waffle iron?

2. I absolutely hate mustard..it’s almost a weird phobia that I have but I can’t eat anything that has mustard in it. Is there a different sauce you would recommend? Or do you think it would still be pretty tasty if I would omit the sauce?

You’re an incredible writer, Jonathan. I felt entertained while getting my panties in a twist over the recipe idea itself! Please, don’t ever stop writing your thoughts along with the recipe. You have a gift, and I believe you could have your own show some day, if you only want.

I first learned about Chicken & Waffles from the book and the movies called Mildred Pierce. Then I started seeing them at local restaurants and just now I saw your recipe posted on The Mad Hatter’s Tea Room Facebook page and I am glad I did. I’m off to post it on Pinterest so that I’ll be able to find it again when I want it. I like the idea of using the waffles like biscuits…

This is the thing I love the way you write. The photograpy is really second place. The cooking, well i need to eat it to have an opinion. Having said that, I find all the information very helpull. I make waffles all the time and just a few days ago I made them different. I mix sausage and rosted bell peppers in to the batter. Top them with country gravy and over medium eggs. Sooo goood. I will try this recipe is next.

I have been wanting to make this recipe for the last 6 months, and I finally made it for my family tonight. It was absolutely delicious. Definitely one of the tastiest things I have ever cooked. All of the flavors and textures were well balanced and complimented each other nicely.

Sooo excited to try this recipe! My husband bought me a new Breville waffle maker and so I was searching for recipes when I came upon yours. Sounds so good and I have never had chicken and waffles together before. This sounds like the perfect first experience!

I love cats, but this picture makes this very unappetizing with a cat sitting right where you are preparing the dish. If it was behind the window pane, it would have been different. I showed this to my animal lover friends and they all agreed the picture should be changed. Still want to try the recipe…sandwich looks awesome. Thanks!

I don’t quite understand. You’re not eating the photograph in question, so how is it unappetizing? In any rate, the sandwich you’ll eat when you make it, won’t be made with a cat around so I don’t see the problem. He’s my cat, so the photo stays. All your animal loving friends will just have to pretend the picture isn’t there. He happens to love waffles, and highly recommends this recipe.

The thing is, that there is so much regarding cleanliness in the restaurant world. Pets so close to the food ingredients do not go together, professionally. As I said, I am an animal lover, but to people who are not, they find the picture very unappetizing. Even my friends who have pets, thought it wasn’t appropriate. You did such an amazing job on this recipe…I still want to try it because it really looks delicious. I’m sorry that this suggestion upset you. Just telling you from a different perspective. All the best to you.

Oh I’m not upset at all. I appreciate your input. I was just stating my opinion, like you and your friends were. I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t own a restaurant and no one (other than me) is eating this food, so again, I don’t see a problem with it. I would get it if I were making this for a crowd of people, or if I was running a business where I was selling food.

Yes, very true. I wish you the best with your site. It is very professional, that is why I was just expressing my thoughts. Not everyone would know if it was an actual restaurant or not. With the internet, you can’t always tell. Keep up the good work and bring on the delicious recipes. Be well and a hug to your kitty.

Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. For Real. I am 24 weeks pregnant, how mean of you to post something so absolutely GORGEOUS and make me wait until I get home to make these. I stumbled on your blog today on pinterest and you sir have earned yourself an avid new follower. Stunning pictures as well my friend. I can’t wait to spend the next two hours poring over all your deliciousness.

These look aaaahhhhmazing! I’m going to try them, hopefully this weekend 🙂 I made regular old chicken n waffles last Sunday and would highly recommend letting the chicken soak for at least 4 hours, if not overnight in the buttermilk mix if you want it to absorb any of the spice from hot sauce or other spices into the meat and not just in the breading.

Shut the front door! I can NOT believe I have not seen this recipe before! Well, actually I can but I am very sorry that this has been missing from my life for so long! I am totally making this for my family’s dinner on Saturday. This is Heaven here on Earth! Can hardly wait to see what hubby thinks of them!

Have had this pinned for awhile to try but last night took the plunge. Its was very good.. My picky eater even was brave and gave it 5 stars. Only thing we did different was my husband added horseradish to the sauce.

I am probably going to buy a waffle maker with my next paycheck because of this recipe lol. It looks awesome. I wish you had a show on foodnetwork, it would be my favorite! Love your blog and personality. Keep it up! Lots of love, Jamie.

A little bit late to the party but a great looking recipe, really cannot wait to try it. I was wondering if you could freeze either the waffles or chicken after you have made them ? Being a student i do not think i would have time to make these in the evening, when everyone else is trying to cook their food in the kitchen. Would i be able to make a big batch and then unfreeze them when i need them?. I will have to search for a waffle maker now, lets hope i can find one in the UK.
Thank you

It’s never too late! You’re here now and that’s all that matters. You can totally freeze the waffles and just rewarm them in the oven or toaster right before assembling! I don’t think the chicken will hold up in the freezer, the coating won’t stay crunchy and crispy, but you can definitely make that super fast before eating! Good luck!

It got you to leave a comment, so I guess that’s one point for me. I find that it’s never too much when it comes to fried chicken. Lucky for you, you can just scroll down to the bottom and print out the recipe and not deal with the “ridiculous amount of pictures.”

Delicious! I followed the recipe, and the passers by looked funny at the ingredients, and I pressed on. All came out just right! The nay-sayers admitted the deliciousness once complete. I wanted to over indulge and decided to patiently wait to make more later.

Hey this is gorgeous and I’m going to make it tonight for my husband! (Actually I think I will just do plain ol’ BLTs without the delicious chicken cuz I’m scared of frying chicken myself.) BUT I am going to make this waffle recipe. Thank you!
And Hey, don’t listen to the haters. I REALLY appreciate all the pictures. I love to see every step of the process. I wish more chefs would do this on their blogs.

Really are the best – crispy, light and great taste. I used buttermilk which I like for pancake recipes too. These waffles freeze really well mad then I toast them throughout the week! Thanks for sharing this recipe. ﻿

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